Postman Pat and the Toy Soldiers
Postman Pat and the Toy Soldiers is a half hour special which was broadcast on the 2nd January 1992. It was written by John Cunliffe. Summary Alf Thompson is making his way through the village with his tractor and a trailer full of hay when he runs into a traffic jam outside the village post office: Pat having left his van outside the post office and a mystery driver having left a builder's lorry on the other side of the road, both having been left so there's hardly any room for Alf to pass without hitting them. With Alf blocking the road, this stops Miss Hubbard on her bike and Peter Fogg on his motorbike, leaving them unable to go through either. At the same time, while Pat is on his round with the letters for the village, Sara catches up to him and informs him that during his rush, he'd forgotten to bring his sandwiches, so she's brought them to him, wrapped up like a parcel. Pat then makes light humor that he'd better not mistake Sara's packing job for a regular parcel. Back at the post office, despite help from PC Selby and everyone else, Alf is still unable to get through until the lorry's drivers arrive: Ted Glen and Major Forbes. The Major apologizes for the traffic jam and explains that he'd borrowed the lorry as Ted is helping him mend the roof at Garner Hall. As soon as Pat returns, the Major informs Pat of an upcoming delivery of toy soldiers for his collection and asks that Pat make sure the parcel is delivered safely. As soon as Ted moves the lorry, everybody else can go on their way again. In the post office, while Pat is helping Mrs. Goggins sort out the letters and parcels for the country, they discover an address label that has fallen off one of two parcels with no address. Pat decides to put the label on one and keep the other parcel. Upon arrival at Garner Hall, Pat rings the doorbell and knocks on the door, only for the door to open. When Major Forbes doesn't show up, Pat decides to leave the parcel he's brought in on the table. Pat then hears a noise upstairs, but brushes it off as his imagination playing tricks and leaves. Once he's finished the morning half of his round, Pat and Jess go to a hill to have a picnic lunch, but when Pat opens the parcel, he finds toy soldiers in it instead of sandwiches. Pat quickly realizes that the parcel he's got is the one that lost the address label and the one he delivered is the one with the sandwiches, so he decides to go back and clear up the mess with the Major. When Pat arrives at Garner Hall, he finds the Reverend Timms soothing the Major and PC Selby surveying the ground for clues. The Major explains that sometime between Pat's delivery and his own arrival, a pair of thieves broke into Garner Hall and stole the Major's prized collection of toy soldiers, adding that the funny thing about the break-in is that the robbers left their sandwiches behind in the rush. Pat clears up the misunderstanding and delivers the real parcel of soldiers, to which the Major praises Pat for saving the new soldiers from being stolen as well. With assurance from the Reverend Timms, Pat goes to the doorway to retrieve his sandwiches, but PC Selby blocks the doorway and informs Pat that he can't go in because they need to check for fingerprints and that the sandwiches are evidence (the robbers possibly mistaking them for the new delivery of toy soldiers). Pat has no choice but to go home and have lunch there while explain the morning's events to Sara and promising to pick up Julian after school. As Pat starts the afternoon half of his round, he comes across Peter Fogg trying to mend his motorbike (Peter explains that the brakes on the front wheel have jammed on) and promises to send for Ted Glen while delivering Peter the latest issue of his motorbike magazine. At Thompson Ground, Pat arrives just in time to have a cup of tea with Ted and the Thompsons (who are supplying Ted with the wood for the roof of Garner Hall). Pat tells Alf and Dorothy about the robbery and Ted that Peter needs help mending his motorbike. When Pat arrives at Intake Farm, he sees PC Selby leaving and asks for the latest news on the Garner Hall Robbery. PC Selby explains that while the robbers were caught on the road to Pencaster, there is no sign of the missing toy soldiers and requests that Pat keep his eyes open for anything suspicious, which Pat promises to do. Pat then delivers George the latest issue of his farming magazine and George tells Pat about a dream he'd had the previous night involving chickens. Before Pat leaves, he discovers that Jess has escaped the van and gone off to chase rabbits. Pat finds Jess has got himself stuck in a rabbit hole and manages to pull him out, making something fly out as well. George recognizes it as a toy soldier as he used to have a set when he was young, to which Pat remembers PC Selby's instructions and reaches into the rabbit hole to find a blue shopping bag which, sure enough, contains all the missing toy soldiers. Pat surmises the robbers had stashed the loot in the rabbit hole on their way to Pencaster in the hopes of avoiding getting caught with the stolen property and praises Jess for finding them. On the way back to Garner Hall, Pat picks up Julian from school and tells him about the day's events. When they arrive, Pat announces the recovered toy soldier collection as a "Special Delivery" and the Major praises Pat for finding them and bringing them back safely. After Pat tells the whole story again (and Julian vouches that Jess is the real hero), Ted agrees that a rabbit hole is a good place to hide stolen property and gives Pat the afternoon edition of the Pencaster Gazette, telling him to check out page 3. As Pat and Julian head off for home, Julian discovers that page 3 has an article announcing a reward of 500 pounds to anybody who finds the Major's toy soldiers. Pat decides they should claim the reward and use it to buy a lot of fish for Jess, but first, they'll go home and tell Sara about it (with Julian offering to tell her first). Characters *Pat *Jess *Sara Clifton *Julian Clifton *Mrs. Goggins *Ted Glen *Alf Thompson *Dorothy Thompson *Reverend Timms *P.C. Selby *Miss Hubbard *Peter Fogg *Major Forbes *George Lancaster *The Garner Hall Robbers (mentioned) *The Pencaster C.I.D. (mentioned) Vehicles *PAT 1 *The Yellow Tractor *The Red Tractor *Ted's Lorry *P.C. Selby's bicycle *Miss Hubbard's bicycle *Peter Fogg's motorbike *The Plough Locations *Pat's House *Post Office *Thompson Ground *Greendale School *Garner Hall *Intake Farm Cast *Ken Barrie as Pat, Ted Glenn, Alf Thompson, the Reverend Timms, P.C. Selby, Major Forbes, George Lancaster and the Main Narrator *Carole Boyd as Sarah Clifton, Julian Clifton, Mrs. Goggins, Dorothy Thompson and Miss Hubbard Trivia * This is the final episode to use the original version of the theme song. * The scene where Postman Pat waves to Sara was used in the ABC for Kids Video Promos from 1993-1997. Goofs *Alf says "It's not my fault, it's this lorry." with a West Country accent. *The narrator changes tenses in some places. *P.C. Selby says that Ted's lorry's headlight is broken, but it never really gets fixed in later episodes. *Pat says as his lunch looks like a parcel, he'd better not put it in someone's letter box by mistake, but it's so big, he couldn't have put it in a letter box if he tried. *Jess is back inside the house with Pat having another lunch, but we don't even see him leave the van or see Pat carry him into the house. *If Pat was letting Jess through the gate of his garden, we would have seen Jess' tail sticking up as he goes through. *The narrator states that Alf is helping Ted load wood onto his lorry, but they're actually unloading it. * At Intake Farm, it's no wonder Jess runs off, as Pat just leaves his van door wide open when he goes to find George, which is a mistake he made before in "Postman Pat's Thirsty Day" and earlier on in this episode at Thompson Ground. Of all the places to leave the van door open, a farm is not the best place, any one of the animals could have got in and caused problems. *Any article, let alone the one about the reward for rescuing the Major's toy soldiers, would not get into a newspaper that quickly. *Alf had too much hay on his trailer at the beginning which could cause an accident if it fell off, so it should have been tied neatly down in bales. * There is only one toy soldier in the Major's parcel. * George does not give Pat back the toy solider he found before Pat discovered the rest in the shopping bag. 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